“I Want There To Be Room For The Reader’s Imagination” – Laura Sims On Her Terrifying New Novel

Margo has found a fragile sense of solace working at a library, charming coworkers and patrons with her wicked sense of humor and strong work ethic. But Margo’s cheerful disposition masks a much darker past. Prior to the library, Margo worked under a different name as a nurse, shuffled from hospital to hospital due to the fact that her patients often met with untimely deaths. When Patricia, an aspiring novelist reeling after a recent career setback, takes a job as a reference librarian at Margo’s library, she’s drawn to the charismatic Margo. When Patricia gets a glimpse of Margo’s true persona in a rare unguarded moment, it sparks a deadly fascination between the two women that pulls them into increasingly dangerous territory. Laura Sims’ How Can I Help You? is a searing thriller that combines keen psychological insight with mordant wit. Critics have widely praised the book, and it was recently named both a New York Times Book Review Best Thriller of the Year a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year. Laura Sims spoke with us about the novel’s real life inspiration, what she left out of her book, and her love of “weird, short novels.”